NAME

binmail − send or receive mail among users

SYNOPSIS

/bin/binmail [ + ] [ −i ] [ person ] ...
/bin/binmail [ + ] [ −i ] −f file

DESCRIPTION

Note: This is the old version 7 UNIX system mail program.  The default mail command is described in mail(1), and its binary is in the directory /usr/ucb. 

Binmail with no argument prints a user’s mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order; the optional argument + displays the mail messages in first-in, first-out order.  For each message, it reads a line from the standard input to direct disposition of the message. 

newline
Go on to next message.

d Delete message and go on to the next. 

p Print message again. 

− Go back to previous message. 

s [ file ] ...
Save the message in the named files (‘mbox’ default). 

w [ file ] ...
Save the message, without a header, in the named files (‘mbox’ default). 

m [ person ] ...
Mail the message to the named persons (yourself is default). 

EOT (control-D)
Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop.

q Same as EOT. 

!command
Escape to the Shell to do command.

∗ Print a command summary. 

When persons are named, binmail takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or a line with just ‘.’) and adds it to each person’s ‘mail’ file.  The message is preceded by the sender’s name and a postmark.  Lines that look like postmarks are prepended with ‘>’.  A person is usually a user name recognized by login(1). To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix person by the system name and exclamation mark (see uucp(1)).

When a user logs in he is informed of the presence of mail. 

OPTIONS

+ Display mail messages in first-in, first-out order. 

−f file
Use file as if it were the mail file. 

−i Continue after interrupts — an interrupt normally terminates the binmail command and leaves the mail file unchanged. 

FILES

/etc/passwdto identify sender and locate persons
/usr/spool/mail/∗incoming mail for user ∗
mboxsaved mail
/tmp/ma∗temp file
/usr/spool/mail/∗.locklock for mail directory
dead.letterunmailable text

SEE ALSO

binmail(1), write(1), uucp(1), uux(1), xsend(1), sendmail(8)

BUGS

Race conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file. 

Normally anybody can read your mail, unless it is sent by xsend(1). An installation can overcome this by making binmail a set-user-id command that owns the mail directory. 

Sun System Release 0.3  —  29 April 1983